The record Wembley attendance earlier this month for the Women’s FA Cup Final has underlined the growing profile of this branch of the game and The Sports Office team were delighted to see client club Manchester City secure victory under the world-famous arch.

Man City Women beat Birmingham City Ladies 4-1, in front of a bumper 35,271 crowd. The winning side featured the likes of England skipper Steph Houghton and star US signing Carli Lloyd. As well as the “Light Blues”, women’s teams at Chelsea, Arsenal, Southampton, Oxford United and Bristol City are all users of “The Football Squad’’, The Sports Office’s performance management system for elite soccer.

This growing sector of the game benefits from the system’s powerful functionality. And Sports Office Business Development Manager Tom Leather says the company is pleased to have played a part in supporting the success of all teams and of women’s football as a whole.

He said: “It’s great to see the women’s game developing so rapidly, as well as the increasing recognition for the professional standards of the competitions and the teams.”

“And of course we’d like send our congratulations to Manchester City Women for their great victory in the Cup Final at Wembley. We understand the team are aiming to secure more success in the future and we believe the “The Football Squad’’ will support them as they move forward.”

Source: Manchester City Women Twitter.Manchester City Women celebrate their 2017 FA Cup victory. They are one of several elite women’s teams which use The Sports Office performance management system for elite soccer.

Coaching, football analysis software and much more

The Sports Office online performance management system for elite soccer supports managers, coaches and fitness practitioners involved at professional level. The system provides an extensive range of features to support football coaching, video-usage, sports science, sports medicine, scouting and recruitment, squad management and intra-club communication. It also offers extensive statistical analysis for football, training load management and allows the creation of personalised performance and development plans for players.

Women’s football is set for further profile boosts in the coming months. The UEFA Women’s EURO 2017 kicks off this July in the Netherlands and for the first time, the tournament will involve 16 teams. The FA have also recently launched Gameplan for Growth, which is a drive to double participation and grow the fanbase.

The Sports Office works with more than 100 professional football clubs, competing in the world’s most high-profile competitions. Several major national governing bodies have also chosen to adopt The Sports Office. One of these is the Scottish FA, who use it throughout their structures, including for all their national teams and at all seven of their Performance Schools.

Elsewhere in the world of elite sport, clients include the RFU, Aviva Premiership rugby clubs, leading equestrian organisations, professional tennis coaches, clubs in Rugby League’s Super League and professional cycling teams.

The Sports Office athlete management systems are used by a growing number of national governing bodies (NGBs) and elite sports federations. Many of these organisations face the dual challenge of optimising performance of national and representative teams or athletes; and managing factors such as long-term athlete development, welfare issues and injury surveillance.

The RFU was among the first group of NGBs to work with the The Sports Office. They have used our system to create a comprehensive electronic medical record covering their elite domestic players and every international squad. The system also provides extensive athlete monitoring functionality, which the RFU has deployed as part of their ground-breaking ‘English Professional Rugby Injury Surveillance Project’. They describe this as “the most comprehensive injury dataset in Professional Rugby Union” and it provides objective analysis of trends in injury risk in the English professional game.

The Scottish Football Association is also an NGB client of The Sports Office. They required an online performance management system, to help support the development of players aged 11- 16, in the association’s seven national performance schools, situated in different regions as well as programmes for their adult national teams. The Sports Office system allows Scottish FA coaches to share and deliver programmes between these sites. Players and staff can also access the system from anywhere by logging in on any device or by using the system’s dedicated app.

David Stevenson, the Scottish Football Association’s Head of Performance Analysis, said: “The Sports Office is a hugely powerful tool allowing us to quickly and easily manage our key performance processes. It helps us give the best possible preparation.”

The Sports Office was also selected to supply the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) with an online performance management system (PMS), to support its Jockey Coaching Programme, managed by the British Racing School and Northern Racing College.

And The Sports Office Business Development Manager Tom Leather added: “We are seeing a growing demand for our athlete management systems from elite sports federations and NGBs. These organisations wish to use them for programmes such as long term injury surveillance and related athlete welfare projects, as well as maximising the performance of teams and athletes in their representative structures.

“We believe our sport specific systems have proven themselves highly capable of meeting these complex needs and they provide extensive functionality to support a broad range of performance management and athlete monitoring activity.”

You can read a more detailed Case Study relating to the Scottish Football Association’s use of The Sports Office athlete management system here.

You can also read about our work with the British Horseracing Authority here.

Please contact The Sports Office today to learn more about how our systems can be used to help elite sporting organisations find the winning edge.

The Michael Lewis book, Moneyball, has had a massive impact on sports analytics since its publication in 2003, reinforced of course by the Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt released in 2011. Moneyball has promoted the possibilities of using data analytics in elite sport to gain a competitive advantage.

Nothing persuades like success and the Oakland A’s in North America’s Major League Baseball have been extraordinarily successful in making themselves competitive with rival teams spending triple their salary costs and more. The 2015 regular season will be the first since 1998 that the A’s will post a win percentage below 50%, an amazing achievement for a team consistently amongst the lowest spenders in the competition.

But once you start digging below the headline message that you can win with analytics, the significance of Moneyball has not yet I believe been fully appreciated. And the reason for this lies in the nature of the original context, baseball. Moneyball detailed how the A’s General Manager, Billy Beane, used data analytics to improve the effectiveness of player recruitment. Beane, influenced by the insights of Bill James and other baseball statisticians [ or sabermetricians], took advantage of the sports’ attachment to conventional metrics for measuring hitter and pitcher performance and started to use statistically superior metrics.

On-base percentage [which measures how often a hitter gets to base irrespective of how he gets there] was one such metric, largely ignored by other MLB teams but shown by James to be a better measure of what a hitter contributes to the team’s offence. Beane realised that he could buy wins more cheaply by targeting players with an above-average propensity to be walked to base, an undervalued skill in baseball’s labour market.

So when other teams in other sports tried to follow the Moneyball approach, it was only natural that they should perceive the main contribution of data analytics as supporting the player recruitment function. Thus data analytics largely became the preserve of the front office in sports teams, supporting the GM, the technical/sporting director and the head of scouting. It quickly became an exercise in big-data analytics as teams constructed large databases populated with player performance data covering leagues around the world, over several years.

The use of data analytics to support player recruitment has not been universally accepted and there remains considerable resistance in many teams. One of the main reasons for this resistance is the misapprehension that data analytics offers an alternative to traditional scouting methods. It doesn’t.

Analytics is ultimately about using all available information as efficiently as possible to support decision making. In the specific case of Moneyball it is about using the numbers better by identifying superior metrics. But more generally it is about using all the available information effectively including scouting reports and video. How often is valuable information contained in scouting reports ignored and left to gather dust? And using information effectively necessarily requires construction of a database in which to store all of the information in a systematic way that makes it easy to access and analyse.

A more analytical approach should mean getting much more out of the scouts. If anything Moneyball has been a bit of an albatross in this respect since for dramatic purposes the film highlights the conflict between scouts and analysts, and ignores the reality that most teams with effective player recruitment, including the Oakland A’s, adopt a very systematic, evidence-based approach to scouting that combines data, video and attending games. The New England Patriots in the NFL are a great example of team-specific scouting that pulls together a huge array of information on potential recruits in a very rigorous manner in order to identify not the best players but the players that will best fit the needs of the Patriots and their system of play.

Baseball is a striking-and-fielding sport and as such is highly individualistic with relatively little need for tactical co-ordination between players. Not surprisingly baseball analytics is largely about measuring individual player performance to feed into the GM’s player recruitment decisions. But the significance of Moneyball for other sports goes beyond applying data analytics to player recruitment.

In the invasion team sports such as the various codes of football, rugby, hockey and basketball, the spatial dimension is critical, with players continuously having to make decisions in and out of possession on where to position themselves. Success in the invasion team sports requires tactical co-ordination. Coaching decisions on team selection and game tactics can all benefit from data analysis support, alongside the traditional video analysis. Data analysis can give breadth of coverage to complement the depth provided by video analysis. And just as video analysis is coach-led, with the performance analyst providing video clips on demand, so too with data analysis. Effective data analytics must be coach-led, analysing the available data to meet the needs of the coaches.

Applying data analytics to tactical issues represents one of the leading-edge developments in sports analytics currently. It is this type of analysis that sets apart teams such as the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. And it is the type of approach that I helped co-produce with the coaching staff at Saracens, one of the leading rugby union teams in Europe.

Over the period 2010 – 2015, Saracens developed a sophisticated internal data collection system in which the coaches and performance analysts analysed all aspects of their games using their own team-specific definitions and including expert evaluations of players’ decision making and technique. I helped identify a comprehensive set of player and team key performance indicators (KPIs) that were tracked across all games. Data analytics was also applied to produce detailed reports on forthcoming opponents, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. This data analysis complemented the video analysis and indeed sought to provide a general context within which the coaches could interpret game videos.

So don’t see Moneyball just as a roadmap on how to do player recruitment more effectively by using statistics rather than scouts. See it as a powerful argument for sports teams embracing an evidence-based approach to all sporting decisions that utilise data analysis alongside video analysis in a coach-led process.

Don’t restrict data analytics to the General Manager’s or Chief Executive’s office particularly in the invasion team sports. Data scientists have as much a role to play on the training ground, supporting the day-to-day decisions of the coaches as performance (i.e. video) analysts and sports scientists. Moneyball is, after all is said and done, a starting point not a destination.

Professor Bill Gerrard works as an expert consultant to The Sports Office.

Please contact us today to learn more about how our systems can be used to build a robust database; and how to generate insight and intelligence from this, so that sporting organisations can find the winning edge.

The Sports Office is to attend the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) second World Rugby Conference and Exhibition (IRB World Rugby ConfEx) – which takes place on November 17th and 18th in London.

The company will be represented by members of its Client Management team, within the Exhibition area. The event will also feature the IRB Medical Commission Conference, alongside various group discussions and workshops.

“We are delighted to be participating in the IRB World Rugby Conference and Exhibition”, commented Phil Clarke, Director of The Sports Office.

“With the start of the Rugby World Cup less than a year away, this prestigious event will provide a great opportunity for us to meet with many key figures and decision-makers in world rugby, and understand the important, emerging trends within the industry.”

“We are also relishing the opportunity to gain further insight from the Medical Commission Conference which will no doubt be an important element of the wider event. We currently work in partnership with the RFU to support their cutting-edge sports medicine and injury monitoring programmes and thus we have a significant interest in this area.”

The World Rugby ConfEx was launched by the IRB in 2013 with the aim of bringing together the global Rugby family and maximise opportunities for all involved in the sport. The inaugural event saw representatives from over 100 National Unions among the 600 delegates, and over 30 international exhibitors.

Speakers including Patrick Hickey (President of the European Olympic Committees), George Gregan (former Australia captain), Agustin Pichot (IRB Council Member for Argentina) and British Olympic Association Chairman, Lord Coe have previously appeared at the event.

Phil Clarke, The Sports Office MD, has recently written an article discussing the concept of Big Data and its implications for high performance sport.

We have reproduced the piece below:

“If you have looked in the business section of a national newspaper recently, or viewed one of the many business or tech websites, you will have surely seen the term Big Data being used frequently and given great prominence.

Whilst there are many complex definitions, Big Data can reasonably be understood to mean the ever-increasing volume of information,statistics and numbers that can be collected and analysed, in organisations and enterprises of all types, to tell us what is happening and why.

Business leaders are rapidly facing up to the implications of this growing phenomenon.

If they have not already done so they are upgrading their data management approaches and processes in order to meet the challenge. They are changing the way they work and they are re-tasking people within their organisations to take advantage of the insight and business intelligence that can be generated by these critical numbers.

They are changing their cultures and working practices by investing in new resources and structures so that they are best placed to prosper and gain maximum value from what could be be regarded as a revolution. The message is clear and consistent. If organisations do not evolve to meet the challenge posed by Big Data and seize the opportunities it creates, they face the prospect of failing to keep pace in sectors and markets that grow evermore competitive.

There are lessons for high performance sport in this story.

In sport, just as in business, an increasing volume of information is being captured and collected. Technological advances will fuel exponential growth in this area for the foreseeable future, as athletes are continuously monitored by tools as diverse as sports GPS systems, heart rate monitors and daily saliva tests. These statistics and many more like them are high performance sport’s Big Data.

Within these numbers there is a massive amount of potential insight and intelligence for coaches, administrators, trainers, sports medics and athletes and players.

Just as a major corporation could and should use “their” Big Data to learn a great deal about how effectively they are operating, the same goes for sports organisations who wish to be successful and fend off their rivals.

The opportunities that Big Data creates for sport are truly great. Coaches can find a winning edge. Players and athletes can better understand what is required of them during games and competitions. Sports scientists, conditioners and sports medicine professionals can understand what effect their programmes and treatments are having.

Statistics can be collected and analysed to better understand what are the critical factors for success and optimum performance, in all facets of elite sport. Preparation, competition, injury prevention and rehabilitation can all benefit by applying this approach. Scouting and recruitment and retention can also be enhanced by these powerful principles.

A critical piece of sport’s Big Data jigsaw is the management and the bringing-together of what could be a huge volume of information, in order to truly gain maximum benefit. A sporting organisation should not only collect and collate information critical to their performance, they also need to have an efficient way of learning from the intelligence and insight it can give them.

In order to achieve this, they need to effectively manage their data in a centralised hub which can be easily accessed by all relevant personnel.

Through this, a sporting organisation’s key performance indicators can be then identified and used as a basis for continuous improvement. Such a system should add value to all aspects of sports performance and make sport’s Big Data a powerful tool.

Arguably one of the most practical applications of this is the concept of the Game Score. In simple terms, it is the combination of various statistics that the coches inside any sporting organisation deem critical to success; these are often known as the key performance indicators. Using these a formula can be created to produce a score or numerical ranking which is an overall indicator of how successfully and effectively an athlete has performed in a particular contest.

By crunching numbers in this way, a coach or a manager can quickly and easily understand which players and athletes need additional training, support and guidance. Areas for improvement and reasons for success will be understood more clearly. Used consistently this is a powerful measure of performance and progress.

The film “Moneyball” and the story of maverick baseball General Manager Billy Beane may have brought this rapidly developing area into the public gaze in recent times, but any sports organisation, which needs to deliver success in a competitive environment and enjoy a Hollywood-style happy ending, must face up to the challenge and grasp the opportunity.

Sports organisations should do as their business cousins are doing. They should consider where they can improve. They should consider where they need to invest to unlock the value from Big Data. They should reflect on what they need to change to succeed in this brave new sporting world.

At The Sports Office we have a vision to play our part in this sporting revolution. We believe the correct approach to Big Data is critical to the future success of all elite sporting organisations and we have amassed a significant body of knowledge and experience about how best to tackle the challenges and opportunities that are created.

You could argue that elite sport has never had such a high profile in everyday life and ,as it continues to hit the headlines and fill up the TV schedules, there is no doubt that Big Data is big news for sport.”